Recently, it is common that communication service providers provide various services based on various wireless communication technologies. The service providers have provided services based on WLAN (ex. WiFi) related a short range wireless network, as well as the WCDMA, CDMA, and WiBro. Moreover, they positively employ a Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.
In a heterogeneous networks environment including various networks mixed therein as described above, it is general scheme for providing data service with a terminal device such that the terminal device selects access network for data service among heterogeneous networks.
Therefore it can be said that the conventional scheme is not preferable for the service provider because the service provider has limitation on the controllability of the selection of access network.
Meanwhile, these days, various wireless devices, such as a smart phone and a tablet PC, has been developed. In addition, a charge for data service decreased, and simultaneously data service using a large amount of data traffic increased. In such circumstances, the load on the networks of the service providers rapidly increases, thereby requiring excessive expense for network investment and threatening the service stability.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new service scheme for actively selecting an access network in a heterogeneous network environment according to the network state and achieving an efficient data transmission using the selected network.